With the Summer heating up, In the Parks will be cooling off at some of Southern California’s top water parks. This week, we splash down at Knott’s Soak City in Buena Park. Soak City is a compact 13-acre water park adjacent to Knott’s Berry Farm theme park. It features 17 tube slides, a wave pool and a lazy river. Read all the way through our review for a chance to win 4 FREE tickets to Soak City!

ParkingUnfortunately, parking is shared with Knott’s Theme park and,because of that, is pretty expensive considering the short amount of time an average visitor stays in a water park.
Single Day Parking Car: $15
Single Day Parking Bus/RV: $20

The park is located directly across Beach Blvd, in the shadow of the lovely (and free admission) Independence Hall exhibit. Following the pathway surrounded by lush landscaping leftover from the former Jungle Island attraction, visitors are led to the entrance of Soak City.

Soak City, Buena Park, plays off of the long coastal history of the area in its theme. Entering the park, guests are greeted with the park icon, the Golden Surfer. In this main entrance area we have the usual guest services such as the lockers, annual pass processing, and the park’s only gift shop.

The Golden Surfer

All day locker rentals are $8. Not too bad. But $25.00 for a large Locker? Ouch.

Wipeout Surf ShopWipeout Surf Shop is the only gift shop in Soak City, but it carries everything guests will need to enjoy their day. They have the usual water themed souvenirs, but they also carry supplies like sunscreen, sandals and, of course, towels. Not to candy and toys.

Guests can also rent cabanas for the entire day to use as base camp for the group. The cabanas vary in amenities, but all offer a cool, covered place to rest up. Guests can purchase the use of a cabana at the front of the park, but Knott’s advised us that people planning on visiting should reserve cabanas ahead of time on line here as they often sell out.

*Holidays:Memorial Day – May 28, Independence Day – July 4,
Labor Day – September 3 pricing is $140

ATTRACTIONS

Soak City has a nice variety of watersides from the mild to wild.

Banzai FallsHeight Requirement: 42 InchesThis 41 foot tall racing slide is a hoot. It’s funny to watch people get so competitive. Good times.

Pacific SpinHeight Requirement: 48 inches
Pacific Spin is a thrilling multi-person raft ride that includes a 132-foot long tunnel that drops its riders 75 feet into a six-story funnel. Despite the fact that this is the latest addition to the park (it joined the lineup 5 years ago), it packs quite a thrilling punch.

Have you ever wanted to know what it’s like to get sucked into a funnel? This is the ride for you.

Sunset RiverHeight Requirement: Guests under 42 inches must be accompanied by a responsible adult, guests under 48 inches need to wear a life vest.Spanning the park in a giant figure eight, is the parks lazy river attraction, Sunset River. At 1,780-ft.-long, this is one of the longest water park lazy rivers in the world. It is also a simple and friendly for all ages attraction. Think of this as the Peoplemover of Knott’s Soak City.

There are zero depth entry points (which make it easy to enter) and the path is quite wide.

The Sunset River has a disabled loading chair at the entrance as well.

Old Man FallsHeight Requirement: 48 Inches
The highest waterside tower in the park is the Old Man Falls Tower, which has three slides stemming from its peak. Pipeline, Point Break and Riptide are all the fastest slides in the park and require riders not wear any abrasive suits or accessories. It’s fast and fun.

Malibu RunHeight Requirement: 48 InchesLower down the Old Man Falls tower, at 39 feet, are the four inter tube slides: Dropoff, Heavy Swell, Rincon, and Wave Chaser. These are fun, basic slides that are pretty much a fun ride for all ages.

Tidal Wave BayHeight Requirement: Guests under 42 inches must be accompanied by a responsible adultRider Safety: Swimmers under 48 inches must wear a life vest
Every water park needs a good wave pool. Thankfully, Soak City has a sizable 750,000-gallon Tidal Wave Bay.

Toyota Beach House
The Toyota® Beach House offers three stories of hands-on water fun including interactive water guns, nozzles, and faucets. Every five minutes the water bucket atop the structure dumps a crushing 500 gallons of water on everyone below!

Gremmie LagoonHeight Requirement: Must be UNDER 54 inchesThe children’s play area in the park is a nicely themed little splash zone called Gremmie Lagoon.

Laguna Storm Water TowerHeight Requirement: 42 inchesRider Safety: Swimmers 42 inches – 48 inches must wear a life vest.For those still looking for more of a thrill there is the 43 foot tall Storm Tower. These enclosed raft slides are in almost total darkness with waterfalls inside the tube along the route. What’s nice about these is that the height restriction is not as high as the other thrill rides.

FOODThe park delivers adequately on the food, offering the basics in meals and munchables.

Three locations around the park have everything from pizza to fried chicken to burgers. What was surprising was the reasonable pricing on the food in this park. We were also told that the food items are all being systematically revamped and improved. The burger, we were told, was particularly good.

Longboard’s GrillThis is the main food location in Soak City and offers pretty much something for every taste.

WE LOVE that Knott’s Soak City Salutes our Military service members by offering free admission for all active or retired service members! All that they have to do is show a Valid Military ID at any open ticket window on July 2nd thru 6th to receive a free admission ticket!

Remember ,however, that this offer is for active & retired military personnel only. However, they are permitted to purchase up to 6 additional tickets at the “Show your Military ID” price for their friends and family members.

THE VERDICT:
Overall, we feel that Knott’s Soak City in Buena Park is a pretty good deal for the money. While the parking is a bit too far on the pricy side, you can’t really go wrong with a $26 admission price for a day of fun at a water park. What is an even better deal is the Gold Pass for $149. The Gold Pass gives you entry into All three Soak City parks in Southern California, (Buena Park, Palm Springs and San Diego), Free Parking, AND entry into Knott’s Berry Farm through the end of the season. The perfect day would be to roll into Knott’s for a few hours, then go cool off at Soak City.

WANT TO GO TO SOAK CITY FOR FREE?

The contest is now closed. Congratulations to DBhays as the winner of the Knotts soak city family pack.

Knott’s Berry Farm is so convinced that you will like Soak City that they are giving away a pack of 4 tickets to the water park to one of our readers! What do you have to do to win? Answer the question below. If you post the correct answer in your comment you will be entered in the random drawing in which one lucky winner will get the prize of four tickets into Soak City.

Q. WHAT IS THE HEIGHT OF THE OLD MAN FALLS TOWER?

Let’s hear from you below folks. Are you ready to visit Old Man Falls in person?

And that is the news from Soak CIty today. But that’s not all, not by a long shot. We have a whole other article about the Disneyland Resort too. Over the weekend we have news from Six Flags, and Universal Studios too. So, please be sure to click the links and check back to the site all weekend for lots of great new articles.

About Norman Gidney

Norman Gidney, also known as Fishbulb, produces and edits many of the articles on MiceChat. Tune in every Tuesday for the Orlando Parkhopper and every Friday for In The Parks. But you'll also find his photos in the Weekly Round Up, SAMLAND, and numerous other columns on the site.